Marco Materazzi
Personal information
Full name	Marco Materazzi
Date of birth	August 19, 1973 (1973-08-19) (age 34)
Place of birth	Lecce, Italy
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Internazionale
Number	23
Youth clubs
1990-1991 1991-1993	F.C. Messina Peloro Tor di Quinto
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1998 1996 1998-1999 1999-2001 2001-	Marsala Trapani Perugia → Carpi (loan) Everton Perugia Internazionale	025 0(4) 013 0(2) 047 0(7) 018 0(7) 027 0(1) 051 (15) 156 (18)
National team2
2001-	Italy	041 0(2)[1]
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 18, 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of June 9, 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Marco Materazzi, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI^[2][3] (born August 19, 1973 in Lecce), is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who currently plays for Serie A club Internazionale. He was a part of the Italy squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which ended in controversy after he was headbutted by Zinedine Zidane during the final.

Early life and club career

Materazzi was born in Lecce, where his father Giuseppe was playing for local side US Lecce. Giuseppe was also a former football coach and manager of teams such as Pisa Calcio, Lazio, Sporting C.P. and Tianjin Teda. Marco was a Lazio fan during his father's stint as Lazio manager in the late 1980s.^[4]

He began his footballing career with the F.C. Messina Peloro youth team from 1990 to 1991. He spent his early career in the lower divisions of Italian football, with amateur side Tor di Quinto (1991-92), Serie C2 team S.C. Marsala 1912 (1993-94), and Serie C1 Trapani (1994-95), where he narrowly missed a historical promotion to Serie B after losing a promotion playoff to S.S. Gualdo.

Serie B squad Perugia Calcio signed Materazzi for the first time in 1995, but spent a part of the 1996-97 season in Serie C with Carpi F.C. 1909, before coming back to Perugia. He then spent 1998-99 with Everton F.C., where he was sent off four times in just 27 games, then once again returned to Perugia. He scored 12 goals in the 2000-01 season, breaking Daniel Passarella's Serie A record of most goals by a defender in one season. He was then signed by Inter Milan for €10m. Materazzi finished the 2006-07 season as the top scoring defender of Serie A with 10 goals. He signed a contract extension in 2006 that will keep him with Inter until 2010.

Materazzi made his 150th appearance for Inter in a 2-0 win over Atalanta B.C. on April 6, 2008. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals, Materazzi had been headbutted in the chest by France player Zinedine Zidane, sending Zidane off by a red card. Zidane had accused him for insulting his sister and mother. During a press conference following the event, Materazzi had revealed that he didn't know that Zidane had a sister.

Materazzi up to now has not publicly apologised to Zidane, but stated his desire for reconciliation. He also offered his version of events, claiming that after he had grabbed Zidane's jersey, Zidane offered it to him sarcastically, and that he in turn replied to Zidane that he would prefer his sister.^[5] Materazzi later stated in an interview that his precise words to Zidane were: "I prefer the whore that is your sister."^[6]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	22 June 2006	Hamburg, Germany	Czech Republic	2-0	Win	FIFA World Cup 2006
2.	9 July 2006	Berlin, Germany	France	1-1(AET), 5-3(PSO)	Win	FIFA World Cup 2006

Honours

Inter Milan

• Serie A

• Winner (3): 2006, 2007, 2008
• Runner-up (1): 2003

• Coppa Italia

• Winner (2): 2005, 2006
• Runner-up (2): 2007, 2008

• Supercoppa Italiana

• Winner (2): 2005, 2006
• Runner-up (1): 2007

International

• FIFA World Cup: 2006

Personal

• Serie A Defender of the Year: 2007

Notes